WISCONSIN RAPIDS – When Tim Bassett, a 42-year employee at the Biron Mill, volunteered in 2008 to take on the extra assignment of updating the mill’s 100-year history and simultaneously documenting the dismantling of two of the mill’s long-standing paper machines, little did he know the magnitude of his task.

Bassett works in the technical department as a paper tester. He recently met with George Mead, chairman of the Mead Witter Foundation and former chairman and CEO of Consolidated Papers, Inc., the company which owned the Biron mill for most of its papermaking history. Bassett was at the Wisconsin River Papermaking Museum, 730 First Ave. S. to present Mead with an autographed copy of the book he compiled entitled, “116 Years of Papermaking BIRON MILL 1896 – 2012.”

The book has been added to the museum’s thousands of documents and artifacts about papermaking in the Wisconsin River valley. Mead and Bassett spent a couple of hours reminiscing and discussing the significant role Biron Division played in the success of Consolidated Papers.

“Tim is an example of the papermaking talent our mills have been so lucky to have over the past 120 years,” Mead said. “He represents generations of skilled, loyal, hard-working men and women who have run the machines, managed our resources, and designed and implemented improvements in papermaking which have taken the industry successfully through more than a century.

“They have a pride and a love for their work — an investment in creating quality product and efficiency in operations which are the core of a business’ success,” Mead said.

Bassett is quick to say that it was a team of people along with the financial backing and encouragement of then Biron mill manager Sean Wallace which brought his book to publication. When he began the project, he borrowed a camera from the technical department, learned to operate it “on the fly” and devised his own tripod and equipment to get difficult angle and aerial shots as the machines were removed.

Bassett took photos for the book only after his regular paper testing job duties were done, and there were many extra volunteer hours spent researching points of history. Bassett also is very proud that over the course of the project, he had no safety incidents, nor did he break the camera, he reported. The list of fellow employees, retirees, history buffs, editors and others who helped is long. He is very grateful to them and they are listed in the book’s credits.

“The more I worked on the project, the more passionate I became,” Bassett said.

He deemed the book the “most interesting work” he has had in his career at the mill. Building upon early work by Gene Johnson, an avid historian and former Biron employee, and hundreds of historical photos, Bassett set out to document current activities, as well as fill in the gaps he identified in previous historical reports.

The Biron mill first began making paper in 1896. Before that, as early as 1837, a sawmill existed on the site. Francis X. Biron arrived there in 1843. When Consolidated Water Power & Paper Company acquired the mill in 1911, there were already two paper machines making newsprint and wallpaper. A third machine was added in 1923. In the 1930s, production of newsprint was discontinued and coaters were installed on the new machine. This was the beginning of many changes and improvements which led to the development of the lightweight coated printing papers for which Consolidated and the Biron Division became famous.

In the 1940s, the mill converted one of its older machines to make paperboard. A product called “aircraft” paper, a heavy kraft paper which was manufactured to government specifications was developed. It was taken to another division of the company and laminated and then used in gliders flown into Europe by the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. (That product later became Consolidated’s product known as Consoweld DuraBeauty laminate.)

Following the war, and in the next two decades, two more machines came on the line at Biron. Much of the paper produced at Biron was used in Newsweek and Time magazines. The company and the mill won many awards for its paper quality and customer service. Through the years, as the printing industry changed its presses, inks, and speed of production, printers demanded improved strength and printability of the paper, at the same time requiring a reduction in the weight of the sheet to meet the rising cost of mailing. Biron, through steady rebuilds and upgrades, met the demands.

The documentation of the machines’ removal was a thrilling but difficult and sad task, Bassett noted. He balanced that with the fact that more than $200 million has been invested at Biron during the past 15 years, assuring that the mill can stay competitive and continue to produce a quality product. This has been possible through a succession of owners including Stora Enso, from 2000 through 2007 and followed by NewPage from 2008 through 2014. The Canadian-based paper company Catalyst, acquired the Biron mill in 2015.

Contributed by Cynthia L. Henke of the Wisconsin River Papermaking Museum. The museum is located at 730 First Ave. S., and is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. There is no charge for admission.